Chapter Ten: Emergence
Desmond watched the sunrise from the South Tower of Clear Water Base. There were four such towers each one attached to the electrified perimeter fences they placed around the base. The walls wouldn't serve to stop the Combine onslaught - they'd been built more with zombies in mind. The Combine were notorious for bringing Zombies to battlefields, shelling an area with head crabs so that the injured Resistance fighters would turn against their allies as Zombies. Desmond knew that the fight would begin soon. His scouts had told him of portals being opened only a few miles from Clear Water. The turrets that filled each guardhouse and tower were manned and auto-turrets set to strike only Combine targets had been placed amidst the underbrush on the Western side of the main road. The Eastern side of the main road would be harder to defend as it was lined only with sparse trees and would offer very little cover. Desmond knew they would have to concentrate their fire on those Overwatch soldiers dumb enough to race across there.
Desmond had fourteen thousand troops at his command not including the regiment that Shephard had set for the ambush in the forest to the West of the base. It was only half of what he had hoped for but with Resistance membership dwindling the human race only getting older he was lucky to have gotten as many as he did. They already had evacuation plans drawn up hoping to get as many people out as they could if the Combine did break their defenses. A soldier, who Desmond recognized as Samuelson, approached him then saluting and presenting a strange woman who seemed quite shaken.
"Sir," the soldier said.
"Aren't you supposed to be with the Colonel?"
"Yes sir, I'm on orders from him sir," Samuelson chirped a bit nervous by having to deal with a Resistance legend like Desmond, "She claims to know your son and to have come from Coldwind. I was supposed to bring her to you, I stopped by med-lab and we got her some food and water and patched up her cuts first sir, hope you don't mind."
"Not at all," Desmond said waving the soldier away from the woman, "What is your name miss?"
"Subject 27," she replied blankly. Desmond lifted a hand to greet her but she cringed as if he intended to hit her.
"Do you know my son? Do you know Julian Miles?"
"The assassin, yes, we are acquainted," the woman said in her eerily monotone voice. She winced as if in pain and went down into a crouch for a moment. Desmond raced to help her up but she held out her hand to halt him, "I'm better now."
"What the hell was that about?" Samuelson asked with a gulp.
"The Combine were not kind to me," Allison explained, "My name is Allison Rogue and I am a friend of Julian. I've come to beg your help."
"Sir," a soldier interrupted, "I'm sorry to bother you but your son has just been spotted coming up the road."
"Good send him up here right away," Desmond insisted.
"I can't sir, he's being escorted by Combine Soldiers."
Julian walked calmly beside the Templars. There was something truly unsettling about it. Both the Combine and the Knights Templar had been his enemies at one time. Here he was striding along with Templar Overwatch soldiers down the road toward Clear Water. The assassin watched the eyes of the Resistance soldiers, putting the finishing touches on their defenses, go wide with amazement, some whispering in fear and others lifting weapons. Julian gestured for them to lower their guns, not wanting their newfound allies to end up their enemies. The assassin did his best to make his gait nonchalant to clue the others in to the fact he wasn't amongst hostiles and that they shouldn't get any ideas.
A group of high ranking Resistance came down the road now including two first lieutenants and, to Julian's surprise, his Father. The assassin wondered just how fearless his Father could be, to so readily approach hostile forces just before a battle.
"I suppose you're here to negotiate a surrender," Desmond said approaching the only Elite of the group.
"Nope," Julian responded stepping away from the soldiers, "These guys are on our side."
Desmond offered his son an incredulous raised eye brow and watched in confusion as the Combine soldiers stood at attention and saluted him. He stood back scratching his chin in a futile attempt to guess at what Julian had done to change their allegiances. Desmond knew from experience that breaking the mind-control of the Combine was no easy task and that often Combine soldiers had their brain chemistry altered in order to fully break their individuality.
"There's more where this came from," Julian assured his Father, "it's a bit hard to explain."
"Please explain it anyway," Desmond said with a still perplexed expression.
"You might turn against them if you hear you they really are," Julian suggested and Desmond's eyes went wide.
"Templars," he nodded and Julian's expression, despite the younger assassin's attempt to mask it, betrayed the truth of Desmond's guess. The two stepped away from the soldiers to talk privately, "I should have known they'd survive the Combine. I'm not so sure we should trust them."
"Neither am I," Julian admitted, "at least not entirely… But for now, in our moment of desperation, we need their help"
"As much as it pains me to agree," Desmond said, "We do have bigger fish to fry."
"Those old figures of speech never make much sense do they?" Julian laughed.
"We have other business," Julian explained, "I have a girl here, a young woman who says she knows you."
Yuki watched Desmond and Julian arguing back and forth and recalled her similar dialogue with the General only the day before. The young assassin had only just arrived and was already arguing to leave the base and go off on a separate mission. Desmond was arguing against it and not backing down an inch, wanting his son present in the command room and away from the danger unless he was needed in the battle.
Julian was conflicted as his Father stormed off to continue preparations. The Combine were on their way, Striders were moving in there was little the assassin could do to change his Father's mind now. He'd spent days attempting to get the Portal gun and get back to Clear Water to turn the tide of the battle. Now it seemed a distant goal to the one he felt more pressing, the capture of Michael by the Combine. The assassin knew his presence on the battlefield would do very little to slow the Combine assault even with the Portal Device in hand. Now that the Piece of Eden was gone, another factor in his Father's anger, there was little hope for their victory. Desmond had dropped several hints in their argument that he wasn't planning on holding to the bitter end and was concerned with keeping escape routes open. At least half of their battle resources, particularly vehicles with mounted turrets and the few helicopters they had would be used to ferry people out and keep the way clear for escape. If it all fell down around them they would be evacuating to City 12, the only city controlled by the Resistance.
The assassin had little desire to stay now but part of him felt like leaving would be abandoning the Resistance in favor of selfish desire to save his friend. Julian wondered if they had even kept Michael alive this long. If it weren't for the sadness in Allison's eyes he might have stayed to stand beside the others at Clear Water against the massive forces. Scouts had reported at least twenty thousand Combine soldiers, nearly half of them Elites, on their way. That force was likely only a first wave in the total amassed troop count of the enemy. If Clear Water could hold off twenty thousand, and Julian wasn't sure they could, more would arrive through teleportation or in dropships.
Julian looked over to Allison who sat with a glum expression. Desmond had explained the situation to her, explained that they could not misplace resources to save one man. Saving Michael would take thousands of troops since he was deep within Coldwind, a facility that Desmond had not wanted to attack ever again without proper strategy and a great deal more firepower.
"I'm sorry," he said softly taking the seat beside her.
"Michael would risk his life for me," she explained, "I have to go, even if no one else will."
"You can't go out there," Julian said, "The Combine will be here any moment."
"It doesn't matter, I have to try," Allison growled tightening her fists in frustration.
"No," Julian turned to see Yuki, "I will go," she said.
"Didn't my Father forbid you from fighting?" Julian asked a bit confused.
"To hell with the rules," Yuki smirked, "Besides according to Allison here that bitch, the female assassin I nearly killed at Black Mesa, is still alive and helped take her friend."
"You want revenge?" Julian asked.
"I want to finish what I started," Yuki corrected, "The Vorts will go with me."
"And so will I," Julian announced, "To hell with orders."
"I will go too," Allison assured but her face was suddenly curled up and she collapsed into her seat whimpering with pain.
Julian knelt beside her and lifted her chin to see her brilliant blue eyes wet with tears. The assassin kissed her softly and stood up with a renewed desire to spill Combine blood.
"You stay here," he begged her wiping the tears from her eyes with his sleeve, "I'll be back. "
Julian rushed to his room assembling his things. He took off his assassin robe and entrusted it to a nearby soldier who promised to get it onto one of the evacuation trucks. The assassin hated giving up his robe to the chance of its obliteration but it was necessary if he hoped to see it again. Where he was going he would have need of better armor. He kept the under layer of the Combine Elite armor he'd worn while in the City 17 Citadel hoping that wearing the HEV suit overtop of it would provide extra protection. He sliced off the edge of one sleeve with a table saw allowing room for his hidden blade and covering the exposed part of his arm with cloth and then chain mail.
The assassin headed down into the armory loading up on throwing knives. He blew past the guards and entered Desmond's own assassin armory thinking that borrowing weaponry from his Father would do little to further the man's anger which would likely already be considerable when he learned of Julian leaving. He found something there he'd never seen before, a gauntlet gun. It was clearly to be worn around the wrist but it wasn't a hidden blade or single shot weapons. It had two barrels and magazines of ammunition emerging from the top of it protruding out the sides. He smashed the glass of the display case and scooped up the weapon removing the other sleeve of his HEV suit to put on the gauntlet. He also found a breastplate but he had to take it and run back to his room avoiding the guards as best he could.
So there he was, wearing Combine Elite under-armor, a breastplate over that, with his XM-8 in one of the HEV storage pouches, his silenced pistol holstered on one side, the gauntlet gun, his special BARBED hidden blade which would do extra damage and ten throwing knifes strapped to his belt. In addition to all this he'd stuffed every other magazine he could into the storage pouches of the HEV suit to make sure he had plenty of ammunition. Yuki appeared in the doorway to his room truly impressed by what she saw.
"You are every bit a badass," Yuki said.
"If we survive this will you finally succumb to your desires?" Julian asked.
"Desires?"
"You know you want it," Julian winked.
"Well you know if I cover my good eye and squint you do look almost attractive enough to turn me on," Yuki laughed.
"Got your Vorts together?"
"Ten from Black Mesa and they managed to get thirty from here to ditch and come with us."
"Great, it'll be forty-two of us versus the six or seven thousand stationed at Coldwind."
Julian emerged from the base to calls of protest from the soldiers around him. There were Striders just ahead of him. He watched one stumble forward into the hopper field knocked in that direction by a Resistance rocket. The hoppers leapt up and knocked the Strider's legs out from under it sending it crashing to the ground. There were at least a dozen of the lumbering giants on the horizon and the assassin knew plenty more would be on the way.
Julian, with Yuki behind him, made a mad dash for the forest off to the west hoping to loop back around to the east and make it to Coldwind without having to fend off thousands of Combine on their way. They waded into the forest quickly making the distance and coming across no Combine until finally reaching the hidden forces of Shephard and his men. The Colonel wanted no part in their outing. Julian managed to convince the man to take the Portal gun and after a quick demonstration of its use the Colonel was sure he would find some use for it in the ambush.
"Imagine the look of surprise on those Combine bastards when we appear from the ground beneath their feet," Shephard said, "Thanks kid."
"Take care of yourself old man," Julian said offering the man a handshake but receiving a hug.
"We need to go," Yuki reminded and soon enough they set back out into the woods.
It must have been twenty minutes before they began their wide loop back around to the East. To their horror though they came out of the tree line staring at a row of Combine dropships and a large group of soldiers, a hundred at least, looking at battle plans. The Vorts moved first blinding the enemy with a flash of lightning and then zapping as many as they could. The assassin took cover behind a tree and took out his XM-8 popping out to drop a soldier now and then as they rushed around fighting the Vorts. Yuki was truly a sight to behold for Julian as she rushed into the fray unafraid chucking grenades and hip firing her submachine gun. The Combine were far more interested in the Vortigaunts than the assassin and his female friend. Yuki rushed for cover and tossed out a smoke grenade
The assassin leapt into action at the sight of the smoke. He dived into the mist his sharp eyes cutting through it far easier than the Combine HUD. None of these soldiers were Elites, the assassin had noted, so none were equipped with thermal filters on their visual systems. This meant he had the advantage now. His hidden blade stabbed into the back of one soldier tearing out a massive chunk of flesh as its barbed edges slid back out. The assassin spun tossing a throwing knife at a shadow that was rushing toward the edge of the smoke but had no time to make sure it was a kill. He dodged one soldier's erratic SMG fire using his silenced pistol to make short work of the panicked group.
The smoke cleared and Yuki was left with an impressed smirk on her face. The assassin had not only already brought down all the remaining soldiers he had also collected the throwing knives he used and cleared the bodies of useful ammunition.
Michael wasn't sure if he was alive or dead. The darkness of the cell they kept him in, the sensory deprivation, left him laying a pool of cold sweat. His mind wandered here and there on the brink of madness. Hallucinations, sounds and sights flashed before his eyes. One face returned to haunt him each and every time, the pale icy eyes of Theta Dark. He had to wonder how much longer they would keep him here. To his knowledge he hadn't been interrogated in days, though in the darkness of his cell he had to admit there was little way to tell time.
Perhaps something had distracted them, he thought. Perhaps they would leave him here to rot and even begin forgetting to feed him. He had refused their slop anyway, afraid that some truth telling agent or insidious poison would be placed within his food. At the first the hunger had been gnawing but now it was commonplace. He was empty, haunted, huddled in the corner of his dark cell. The only comforting thought he could find was that Allison had escaped though even that was only a hope and all of his hopes were wearing thin.
Shephard hated the waiting game. He and his hidden force had watched Strider's, Hunters and even a wall of Combine foot soldiers come wading through the forest a little over a hundred yards ahead of them. He knew his orders were to wait until the opportune moment to spring the trap, when most of the Combine soldiers were ahead of his force focusing only on Clear Water itself. The Colonel hated this though, he felt utterly useless in a battle that he knew would tax the Resistance to its breaking point and likely leave thousands of soldiers dead. He had to remind himself that in order for their deaths to not have been in vain he needed to wait, to hesitate until he and his regiment could land the killing blow on the first wave of the Combine forces.
Desmond watched the monitors light up as various parts of their defenses fell. Thus far they'd done a great job, the first wave was breaking and they'd done everything they could to hold together. General Cartwright's group had done their duty and taken out every Strider that had come up against them. The Hunters had proved a bit harder to take out and several had actually gotten within the perimeter fences only to be dealt with by snipers placed in precipices along the walls of the actual Clear Water compound. The Compound was comprised of four buildings linked by breezeways but also by concrete bridges that lead to sniper towers. The armor piercing rounds of the snipers had proved far more effective at dealing with the Hunter synths than attempting to use simple machine guns or rocket launchers.
The ground outside Clear Water was littered with at least two dozen carcasses, the remains of the Striders. None of them had even gotten in range of the base though a few had taken out soldiers from Cartwright's rocket squad. The destruction of the Striders had a rather unexpected consequence though - it provided ground cover for the approaching Combine Overwatch making it hard for snipers or turrets to pick them off.
Weighing in the back of the man's mind was the news that his son and Yuki were both missing. To his surprise the emotion dwelling in his mind had been fear and not anger, fear that the son he'd just been reunited with would again be out there in danger. Desmond knew that Julian was more than equipped to survive and to fight but that would do little good against insurmountable and incredible odds like those his son would face at Coldwind. Bullets would not show discretion and the Combine would not be kind if they captured him, especially since he was lacking the Piece of Eden. Desmond cringed, remembering the being that often visited him now was in possession of the Piece. It was better than it being in the hands of the Combine, he assured himself.
Most of the Combine forces, at least fifteen thousand, had now moved beyond Shephard. Desmond hit a switch on a computer terminal and sent the signal that would tell the primary Resistance force to emerge and engage the enemy and would also signal Shephard that it was time to move in.
Julian watched the soldiers as they continued down the road. The ground shook as the Strider lumbered forward at a painfully slow pace. The assassin was amazed at how easily they could move so close to the Combine forces, it was as if they expected no threat along the road. Julian had to resist the urge to strike in that moment reminding himself that the true fight was up ahead and that a friend of his was counting on him.
The assassin felt almost selfish in his actions knowing deep down that his true motivation was more in helping Allison, in winning the woman's affection, than in saving Michael. Julian liked Michael and all, and was appreciative of the man's help but his attraction toward Allison was far stronger. The assassin wondered why he had chosen now to become enamored. The futility of love typically prevented it in this post-reproduction world. Sure there were a few Resistance members who had healthy sex-lives but most saw the action as saddening now that the Combine suppression field had aged the world two decades. There was something about Allison though, perhaps her youth, her beauty, her tragic history, her peculiar and brilliant blue eyes. They weren't ordinary eyes, they seemed to go on forever, their blue was deep and yet bright and vibrant, like two frozen flames. The assassin wondered if their beauty was somehow tied to how the Combine managed to make her.
Julian shuddered to think of how many others were like Allison. How long might the list continue after Subject 27? Were there entire colonies off world of human slaves made by the Combine in labs? The assassin knew that some of those in the Animi at Coldwind had to be the product of the Combine tests, the faces he saw had been tortured and young. Others had been older. The assassin hoped the answers would accompany the coming fight and that Allison would find her way out of Clear Water safely if and when the base fell. He wanted to see those eyes again.
Shephard emerged from the Portal and opened fire at the nearest Combine target. His men came through after him pouring from the Portal as quickly as they could. They fired off round after round at the bewildered Combine Elites. The enemy tried to turn to face the Resistance soldiers but they were being cut down quickly. For each Resistance soldier that met their end at the pulse round of an AR2 five Combine soldiers fell dead, torn to bits by the armor piercing rounds the Resistance had each assault rifle, SMG and LMG his regiment was carrying. They took cover amidst the twisted metal and synthetic parts of the Striders and darted between the sparse tree cover as they made their way across the fields.
The Combine had already been engaged with the five thousand Resistance soldiers who had come pouring out of Clear Water toward them and now they struggled to face this new enemy. One Elite turned back to his troops and ordered them forward. He tilted his head in confusion when they refused the order and instead lifted their AR2s in his direction. The Elite lifted his rifle and repeated his order only to be met by a Dark Energy Grenade, consumed in blackness and wreathed in white flame he faded into oblivion.
The Templars turned on their masters now, more than a thousand of Combine soldiers within the first wave firing on their Combine comrades and aiding in the fight. The Combine had already suffered a loss of nearly a thousand troops to the turret fire, sniper fire and wall of five thousand Resistance soldiers that had fought against them but now the remaining fifteen thousand of the first wave was lost in the chaos. They tried desperately to fend off fellow Combine soldiers, Shephard and his group who seemed to appear like phantoms from the ground and the remainder of the Resistance who now pressed forward from Clear Water wading into the enemy lines and shattering the first wave.
Desmond watched the Combine wave collapse and felt a smile emerging on his lips. The Templars had clearly come through and Shephard too was making great progress. The elder assassin could not allow too much confidence to enter him in that moment. He still had hope that they could hold out and now it was bolstered by their initial success but the Combine had more than fifteen thousand troops and more than one wave. He knew more Overwatch were on their way and soon enough the second wave would emerge.